Cars & Hybrids

Conventional gasoline engines are terribly inefficient things. Only 13% of the energy of the fuel actually moves the car. 62% is lost in the engine as waste heat, and driveline losses, accessories, and idling also reduce the efficiency.

Transonic Combustion is planning to build automobile engines with improved efficiency obtained through heating and pressurizing gasoline before injecting it into the combustion chamber. "This puts it into a super-critical state that allows for very fast and clean combustion, which in turn decreases the amount of fuel needed to propel a vehicle," according to MIT Technology Review. A transonic test vehicle achieved 64 MPG in highway driving, compared to a 48 MPG hybrid Prius, and running at a steady cruising speed of 50 mph, the test vehicle achieved 98 MPG.

Like diesel and HCCI, the Transonic Combustion technology operates without needing a spark plug. Timing software also further enhances the operating efficiency of the system. Transonic injection is being developed for use with gasoline engines at present, but will also be compatible with advanced low carbon footprint bio-fuels in the future. Transonic expects its system will be comparable in cost to other current high-end fuel injection systems.

Because of the higher operating pressure, the longevity and durability of the engine will be important considerations the company will need to address. The company plans to build its production facility in 2013 and expects to be building engines for production vehicles in 2014.

via: Inhabitat

The Daily Green recently had the chance to interview Sue Cischke by phone from her office in Dearborn, Mich. The 54-year-old Vice President for Sustainability, Environment, and Safety Engineering is, according to her employer, Ford, the highest ranking woman in the automotive industry.

You are Ford's VP for Sustainability, Environment, and Safety Engineering, and you've been leading the company's environmental efforts since 2001.

In that position, you are the top female boss in the automobile industry - why do you think there aren't more women in your position?

It's a bigger question about women in the auto industry in general. I've been in the industry for 34 years. It's kind of scary to say that but in May it will be 34 years, so I've been through a lot of different ups and downs with the industry in general, but I've had a chance to see the broad industry.

In this position you need people with technical skills and there are not usually a lot of women with engineering backgrounds, and that's probably one reason. Which is not to say you can't do this without that kind of emphasis, but my problem solving in engineering and other things has helped...

Are there any lessons you have for young women starting out in business?

That really makes me feel old. I think it's as true in automotive as anywhere else, you see more women involved in all aspects of all companies. For us in the automotive industry, 84% of the buying decisions on automobiles are influenced by women, so it makes sense to have women involved in all aspects of designing the car.

Things are a lot different from when I entered the workforce. It's still not a huge percent of women selecting engineering as a profession, and specifically automotive. That's just the way things are and we're continuing to have an open culture to encourage everybody to participate at all levels.

You'd encourage men as well as women to take on technical jobs and technical training and background... We have a professional women's network here at Ford that I'm a champion for and it gives us a chance to network...

Normally, I'd be most interested in talking to you about sustainability and the environment first, but I'm most curious right now about what everyone is most curious about: Can we trust our hybrid cars? Specifically can we trust the brakes and the accelerators, given that we've seen problems with the industry leader in the category, the Prius?

I saw at least one complaint in the NHTSA database about braking problems with the 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid. And I've heard of reports about unintended acceleration in the Ford F150 pickup. Is Ford concerned about any of its models?

No, not at all. We have a very robust process within Ford that we do monitor and investigate issues that come to us. The issue on the Fusion was only one complaint... In our system on the Hybrid (Fusion, pictured; photo by Ford), on some rare situations where there's a brake fail situation, there would be a brake light and chime... The chime and light will indicate that there's a change in the brake feel. If the regenerative braking, there's software in the vehicle that says if there's any doubt on how effectively the regenerative braking system - default to hydraulic braking system. It should be seamless, but the pedal travel feels a little different.

The programming we did when you should look to this and when you should not, it was way too sensitive. We went back and tuned that up so that it would be very rare that it would ever have to do that. When you would do that and you have different pedal feel, you would get a chime and a light to alert the driver that it feels differently... We did a customer satisfaction campaign... For all intents and purposes they all get a letter mailed to their home as if there's a safety recall, but there aren't recall consequences with it.

In this case we describe to the customer that this is available to them, no charge. That's why we use that method. The customer will get the notification in the mail just like any other campaign.

Do you think the problems at Toyota coupled with the bailouts of GM and Chrysler, where you started your career, have given Ford a new opening in the marketplace?

Ford has got a good plan that we have in place, and it helps for us to have a successful year last year and we have a lot of optimism this year if the economy continues to improve. We didn't have to take the government money, and we're very proud of the fact that we've been able to do this on our own. We do have a different balance sheet to contend with. They have more debt to wipe out but we didn't go through the bankruptcy...

You've got several cars and SUVs that get better than 30 mpg, but many that do not. What are we going to see happening to your fleet as the higher CAFE standards kick-in, requiring a fleetwide average of 35.5 mpg by 2016?

We do have a plan about how we are going to approach that. We've been saying all along that it will be some segmentation shifting. We will have the Fiesta. We had the Focus. This year will be the first launch of the new Focus. (Pictured; photo by Jim Motavalli.) That will be a popular vehicle with high fuel efficiency.

All the vehicles we're introducing will be at the top of their category for fuel efficiency. Ninety percent of our offerings by 2013 will have EcoBoost engines as an option. That is one area where we direct injection and turbocharge so we boost for power and downsize for fuel efficiency so we're getting up to 20% improvement on the small engine for the large engine that people would have been buying.

(Other improvements, she said, would be more electric power-assistance systems, improved aerodynamics, and a "weight loss reduction" of between 250 and 750 pounds on a typical vehicle.)

You don't just do one big thing, but you do a lot of little things. We do have a plan that will get us to the numbers in 2016 and beyond.

We expect a new electric car from Ford, based on the Focus. When we will see this, how many, and what will it cost?

We already announced that Transit Connect is a battery electric vehicle to be produced this year. Next year, the 2011 battery electric Focus - an all-electric vehicle off the Focus platform. The following year we'll have a brand new hybrid and a plug-in hybrid and a C-sized Focus-sized platform. We have four new electric vehicles, 2 battery electric and one plug-in on the Focus C-sized platform.

Do you believe global warming requires federal legislation to address?

We've been very strong saying we need an energy policy for the company. We're supporting a cap-and-trade system that would be economy wide. We recognize there are a lot of challenges to bring that together... We're already the most carbon-constrained industry... We have fuel economy tied to carbon emissions. EPA and NHTSA will finalize rule in March. I can say we're probably further ahead than any other sector. We need the others to step up.

We are probably the most expensive sector when it comes to controlling carbon. Three hundred to five hundred dollars per ton of CO₂ is the cost of putting an electric vehicle on the road. Improvements on electric generation and other sectors is five to ten dollars a ton. At some point in time, someone has to want these vehicles and with the price of fuel so low it's hard to justify someone paying extra for these vehicles. There's still a mismatch. The environment doesn't care where the CO₂ reductions come from. The economy does.

What's the single most important thing that you think needs to happen to address global warming?

I think we need an energy policy. We need to understand where our energy's coming from long-term... When I look at Brazil, they made a conscious effort to reduce their dependency on oil with sugarcane-based ethanol. It took them years to stick with the course. They established the right subsidies and gradually got to a point where people are consciously making a choice about whether to use gasoline or ethanol...

We tend to get in and get out, and no one really knows where to put their investments. Where do venture capitalists put their money? Today we're subsidizing oil companies based on blending gasoline to 10% ethanol. Where is that money really going? We have to have policies that encourage conservation and a long-range plan about where we are going to get our energy from. (Photo: Don Farrall / Getty Images.)

More from The Daily Green

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Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc

From a public relations point of view, this one is for the record books. Just after Toyota staged a lavish webcast to try and put sudden acceleration behind it, a Prius ran wild to 90 mph on a California highway, resulting in sensational coverage on every website, TV station and newspaper in America.

But the real story was a bit more subtle: The 2008 Prius driven by hapless motorist James Sikes had not been "fixed" by Toyota (he claims he was turned away from his dealership) but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) "defects and recalls" database has recorded more than 60 sudden acceleration incidents in cars that were fixed.

Here are a few, just involving 2010 Camrys:

"I own a 2010 Camry. I just had the recall done last week. Since the work has been done, I have had nothing but problems with the idle and the engine. Before the recall was done, I never had a problem. Something needs to be done before more people are killed."

"My vehicle has been recalled and 'repaired' - gas pedal, floor mat, brake override system. Prior to the recall, the gas pedal was sluggish and I would experience mini, sudden accelerations. There has been no improvement since the repairs (done March 2). In fact, it appears to have become more frequent. The sudden accelerations are not dramatic and braking does take care of the problem."

"While parking my 2010 Camry at the grocery store, I slowly turned into the parking space and my car suddenly accelerated, jumping the curb and hitting a cement surrounded light pole ... I was not noticeably injured. The car had just had the replacement pedal installed on March 2, 2010 as ordered by the recall."

And here are a few involving the 2010 Prius, which has a separate acceleration problem connected with braking over broken pavement:

"Since I purchased the car in September of 2009, the brakes fail when I am braking and hit a bump, pothole or uneven road surface. The brakes fail for a second or two, and sometimes the car lurches forward ... On March 6, 2010 I had the recall software for the 2010 Prius done in the service department at the Mike Calvert Toyota dealership in Houston, Texas. On the way home, I experienced the brake failure again when I was braking and drove over a small pothole."

"I visited my local dealership for repair of the brake recall of the 2010 Prius in early February. I do not believe that this repair has fixed the problem. A few days after the fix, my car seemed to accelerate as I was braking and happened to be going over a pothole."

I'm aware there is such a thing as the power of suggestion, and the fact that runaway Toyotas are blanketing the news may make some people see problems where they don't necessarily exist. After Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast in the 1930s, many people reported seeing his Martians or Venusians or whatever they were.

John Hanson, a Toyota spokesman, said to me, "It makes no difference if the car has been repaired or not: If there has been an incident reported, we have to investigate and see what caused it. Out of more than a million cars repaired in the recall, there have been a very small number of complaints, which we are investigating. The number is not necessarily significant."

Hanson told me, as did another spokesman, Mike Michels, during the Toyota webcast yesterday, "We have a couple of cases of errors being made in the installation of the remedy. It's a handful of cases."

Toyota, with its recalls, apologies and reassuring commercials, keeps trying to put sudden acceleration behind it, but the genie refuses to stay in the bottle. The Christian Science Monitor got to the heart of the issue when it said, "[I]n playing defense, Toyota is not addressing owners' and buyers' core concern: Is my car safe?"

ABC-TV investigative reporter Brian Ross, whose reporting sparked the Toyota webcast, told me via email today, "I'm on vacation this week but it seems there are still many open [questions] about Toyota and its insistence of no electrical or computer problems."

David Gilbert, the Southern Illinois University professor who ignited the most recent round of bad publicity by testifying before Congress that he had found an electronic glitch in Toyota's pedal systems, informed me via email that he will meet next week with Toyota's hired consulting company, Exponent. "I am committed to working with industry, government and other interested[ed] parties and hope to provide more conclusive opinions and input as more research and analysis is completed," he said.

Here's Bloomberg News in a video report on the latest events:

 

But Gilbert's work - the subject of Toyota's webcast - is something of a diversion at this point. Toyota demonstrated fairly definitively that a wiring fault similar to the one he used to make cars run away is very unlikely to occur in the real world. But Gilbert was trying to prove something else entirely. As Eric Evarts noted on the Consumer Reports blog, "In his Congressional testimony, Gilbert says this shows Toyota's system is not infallible. His primary conclusion is that his test should have triggered an error code. In his report, he does not claim his procedure explains how unintended acceleration occurs in the real world."

The real question now: Is there a "ghost in the machine" - a software problem - that is causing this intractable problem? "There isn't a ghost issue out there," Toyota's Kristen Tabar said during the webcast yesterday, and the company continues to express confidence in its electronic systems.

Hanson also says there's no electronic gremlin, or at least Toyota hasn't found one. "We have investigated this many times, and it is also gone over in the R&D process," he said. "We have yet to find any evidence of a software issue, or the 'ghost in the machine' that people are trying to find. If there was one, it would have occurred many, many times. Our computers compare notes with each other in milliseconds, and there are layers of fail-safe that would make it pretty darn tough for anything like that to happen." But Hanson also said that engineers "never say never," and that both Toyota and Exponent are continuing their probes.

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Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc

A new study from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies has identified on-road transportation as the most significant overall source contributing to global warming. Power generation, while having the greatest total impact, also includes a large number of compounds that increase cloud reflectivity and provide other effects to offset some of the warming they are responsible for.

In the study, rather than looking at specific chemicals and compounds, the range of airborne pollutants is broken down by economic sector. The study looks at the range of gases and aerosols that are released by each of 13 sectors of the economy, and finds that on-road transportation has the greatest overall effect on global warming.

"Cars, buses, and trucks release pollutants and greenhouse gases that promote warming, while emitting few aerosols that counteract it. The researchers found that the burning of household biofuels - primarily wood and animal dung for home heating and cooking - contribute the second most warming. And raising livestock, particularly methane-producing cattle, contribute the third most. On the other end of the spectrum, the industrial sector releases such a high proportion of sulfates and other cooling aerosols that it actually contributes a significant amount of cooling to the system. And biomass burning - which occurs mainly as a result of tropical forest fires, deforestation, savannah and shrub fires - emits large amounts of organic carbon particles that block solar radiation."

The intent of this study is to make the information about climate change more accessible and understandable. "We wanted to provide the information in a way that would be more helpful for policy makers," according to Nadine Unger, leader of the research team. "This approach will make it easier to identify sectors for which emission reductions will be most beneficial for climate and those which may produce unintended consequences."

No one should mistake the point of this study to indicate that coal burning and other power-generation and industrial processes are benign and therefore do not need to be scaled back. Although industrial processes mitigate their adverse effects with regard to global warming, the sulfates and aerosols that are beneficial in this one manner are responsible for a range of other, negative environmental impacts.

The paper was published online on Feb. 3 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

via: Worldchanging

Consumer Reports's latest car issue lists the most reliable fuel-efficient used cars on the market. That reminds us that for fuel efficiency, for "sticker" price, and often for reliability, used cars are a better value than new cars, even the most fuel-efficient models.

Of course, as Consumer Reports notes, even used cars can cost upwards of $20,000 - not exactly cheap, especially since you can get at least seven fuel-efficient 2010 cars for under $20,000.

Here's a look at Consumer Reports' top five fuel-efficient used cars under $10,000, along with the mileage you can expect (complete list).

1. 2000-01 Honda Insight (manual) - 51 mpg (pictured)
2. 2001-2004 Toyota Prius - 44 mpg (2004 only; otherwise 41 mpg)
3. 2000-05 Toyota Echo - 38 mpg
4. 2003-05 Honda Civic Hybrid - 36 mpg
5. 2007 Toyota Yaris Liftback (base, manual) - 34 mpg

If you like to buy American or worry because of recent Toyota recalls, then go for the 2000-02 Chevrolet Prizm, which at 32 mpg, is the only American car to make the list of under-$10,000, reliable, fuel-efficient used cars.

But buying a used car can be more challenging than buying new, for those who don't consider themselves car buffs. It takes more research (try edmunds.com to start). How do you know you're getting a good value? And who can you turn to if something goes wrong?

That's what makes the Consumer Reports list invaluable.

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Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc

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There is a basic contradiction in the phrase "green SUV." That hasn’t changed, but SUVs have nonetheless evolved along more environmentally friendly lines, especially as they've hopped off truck platforms and become much more car-based. Some of these SUVs are as fuel-efficient as cars. And it certainly helps that many are now available as hybrids. Soon, we’re likely to see plug-in hybrid SUVs — with 40 to 50 miles of all-electric range.

The new SUVs are called "crossovers," and they've been skyrocketing in popularity as consumers become more interested in fuel economy. According to Edmunds.com, price spikes in 2008 sent crossover sales soaring 50 percent over 2007 levels. Compact cars also saw a jump, as large SUVs plunged 20 percent in the first five months of 2008.

The most popular small SUVs today combine utility with sedan ride and handling and near-30-mpg mileage. In many cases, minivans are a good alternative to SUVs and provide better fuel economy and space utilization, but the "soccer mom" tag is death to many consumers.

Here are seven of the most fuel-efficient SUV crossovers:

 

Ford Escape Hybrid

You’ll pay a $9,000 premium over the base Escape for the $30,000 hybrid version, but you’ll be buying probably the most fuel-efficient SUV there is (32 mpg combined).

The Escape (the Mercury Mariner Hybrid is a close cousin) has enjoyed success as a New York taxi, and it’s proven quite durable. U.S. News and World Reports ranked it seventh of 22 affordable compact SUVs.

All-wheel drive is available, but you probably don’t need it and fuel economy suffers. There are Base and Limited models, with the latter adding a fair number of creature comforts — and more than $2,000 to the bottom line.

 

 

 

 

Porsche Cayenne Hybrid

Believe it or not, Porsche will introduce a hybrid SUV in 2010, a version of its performance-oriented Cayenne with a 150-mph top speed and a rumored 27 mpg.

Would Porsche make a minivan?

 

 

 

 

 

Volkswagen Touareg

For the rest of us who can’t afford a Porsche, a Volkswagen SUV alternative is soon to arrive.

The 2010 Volkswagen Touareg BlueMotion Hybrid uses a supercharged V-6 engine and a hybrid system that will also be shared with Porsche, in this case the four-door luxury Panamera sedan.

Like the Cayenne, it’s fast (zero to 60 in 6.2 seconds) and gets around 26 mpg combined (in the European cycle).

 

 

 

 

Honda CR-V

This is Honda's venerable workhorse small SUV, and it has remained justifiably popular (though it is due for a makeover; this version dates to 2007).

The good news, however, is that for 2010, the CR-V (starting at $21,545) was significantly freshened, and Honda achieved the neat trick of both getting 14 more horsepower out of its 2.4-liter four and improving fuel economy to 21/28 mpg (2WD) and 21/27 (4WD).

Other choices offer an optional V-6, but Honda likes what the four offers. Road noise has also been reduced in the 2010 model.

 

 

 

 

Toyota RAV-4

Like the CR-V, this midsized crossover at $21,675, the RAV4 is a survivor, dating from the mid-1980s, with little alteration to the basic small-and-utilitarian concept.

This is one of the rare instances where it might makes sense to go for the bigger engine, since the available V-6 sacrifices little in terms of fuel economy (but adds nearly 100 horsepower and a 7.2-second zero to 60 time).

The four-cylinder 2WD RAV4 clocks in at 24 mpg combined, and its V-6 big brother 22. But you’re fine without the 4WD.

 

 

 

 

Subaru Forester

Not much changed in 2010, the $20,295 Subaru Forester (a favorite of greens with stuff to move) is, says Consumer Reports, "among the best small SUVs."

Stick with the base 2.5-liter four, which offers lively performance and 22 mpg overall. If you feel you need it, the XT model adds turbocharging but declines to 20 mpg.

The Forester is perhaps the most carlike of these choices, and like all Subarus it comes with 4WD. The back seat has room to stretch out, and is one of the best things about this small car, which has enjoyed excellent reliability ratings.

 

 

 

 

BMW X6 ActiveHybrid

This is BMW’s first full hybrid vehicle, and it’s a luxurious but pricey choice at $89,725.

This is an SUV for performance-oriented techies, since its big twin-turbo V-8 produces 400 horsepower, and they are supported with a pair of beefy electric motors (480 peak horsepower total). There is no better option for zero to 60 in just 5.4 seconds while carting around a Cub Scout pack.

Take it up to 130 mph if you dare, then throttle back and go 1.6 miles on the nickel-metal-hydride batteries alone. Fuel economy is much better than the standard X6, but still no Environmental Defense Fund member’s dream at 17 in the city and 19 on the highway.

Carbon emissions are down 20 percent from the standard car, but they’re still double that of a Toyota Prius.

 

(Photos courtesy of each car maker.)

 

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Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc

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If you've been yearning to own a Tesla Roadster, but can't afford the six-figure price tag, the car company will start leasing their popular electric sports car for a minimum of $1,658 a month, meaning you probably still can't afford it.

The three-year, 30,000-mile contract requires $12,453 at signing, which includes a $9,900 down payment and a $895 acquisition fee.  Then at the end of the lease you'll need to pay a $350 disposition fee and $.25 for every mile you go over the 30,000 mark.  Plus you'll owe for any wear and tear on the vehicle.

So, what could possibly be the perks of this fee-laden lease agreement?  During the lease, you have full access to the Tesla Ranger service squad that will make house or office calls to perform inspections, firmware upgrades and maintenance, and you have the chance to drive the sexiest EV on the planet before they halt production in 2011.

Could those reasons make a car lease that costs as much as a mortgage worth it?  Well, that's up to you.

via Earth2Tech

British Airways has announced that it will start producing jet fuel from landfill waste to reach its target of 50 percent reduced emissions by 2050.

The airline is partnering with biofuels company Solena to construct a waste-to-energy fuel plant in East London that will turn 500,000 tonnes of organic waste into 16 million gallons of jet fuel per year.  The fuel will be made by treating the the waste in a high-temperature gasifier to create BioSynGas which is then converted to jet fuel using the Fischer Tropsch process.  The plant will also create a by-product of 20 MW of electricity per year and have the added benefit of keeping waste out of landfills.

British Airways is only committing to use a 10 percent blend of the biofuel at this point, a disappointment when you consider the successful test runs of 50/50 bio-jet fuel blends.  The airline plans to start using the fuel by 2014.

via Treehugger

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Navistar are testing drag-reducing devices that could cut big rig fuel use by 12 percent, or 3.4 billion gallons a year.  The devices would fit into the areas of the truck that produce the most drag, making it more aerodynamic and reducing the energy needed to propel the truck.

At highway speeds, semi-trucks use more than half of the energy from their engine overcoming drag.  With these devices placed at crucial points like the trailer base, underbody and the space between the tractor and trailer, the drag is significantly reduced.  The fuel savings amount to a reduction of 36 million tons of CO2 emissions a year - the same as four 1-GW power plants - and a cost savings of $10 billion a year for the U.S. trucking industry.

The LLNL's devices, along with other commercially-available ones, are being tested at NASA's Ames Research Center in the world's largest wind tunnel where researchers hope to coax even greater fuel efficiency through the large-scale testing.  Trucks could be retrofitted with the devices in as little as three years.

via GreenBiz

 

Ford Motor Company has taken another step forward in adding electric vehicles to their fleet by announcing an all-electric version of their Transit Connect van. The conventional version of the Transit Connect was named Truck of the Year at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year. A small number of electric Transit Connect trucks will be available later this year, with subsequent production levels to be based on demand.

The truck is an all-electric vehicle, and is targeted at commercial uses such as route driving with fairly regular, predictable driving. However, Ford has also said that they "would not exclude retail sales" for the van.

The electric Transit Connect has an expected range of 80 miles from a 28 kWh lithium ion battery pack. It is designed to recharge at a 240 volt charging station over a period of 6-8 hours. Charging from a 120 volt supply is also possible.

via: Ford press release